I thought his goose was cooked.
Posted on 01/12/2005 10:47:36 AM PST by presidio9
Birds may not be renowned for their intelligence but New Caledonian crows have an instinctive ability to make and use tools, researchers said on Wednesday.
They bred four crows in captivity and found all the birds were able to make tools from twigs without being taught.
"We show that hand-raised juvenile New Caledonian crows spontaneously manufacture and use tools, without any contact with adults of their species or any prior demonstration by humans," said Alex Kacelnick, of Oxford University in England.
The crows -- three males and one female -- were raised in artificial nests and then transferred to aviaries that contained a variety of twigs and food hidden in crevices.
Two of the birds were shown by their human foster parents how to pry food out of tiny spaces with the twigs but the other birds were not.
"All four crows developed the ability to use twig tools," Kacelnick and his colleagues said in a report in the science journal Nature.
The tutored birds watched the tool demonstrations but the scientists found no difference in their skills and those of the other two birds.
"In light of our findings, it is possible that the high level of skill observed in wild adult crows is not socially acquired," said Kacelnick.
He and his team believe the crows could be a good example to study the interaction between inherited traits and social learning during the development of tool technology.
I thought his goose was cooked.
No crows here, however ravens are everywhere. They talk if they want to.
Crows are good watchmen like geese. They will alert you to strange people or animals coming around. If the person or animal belongs in the vicinity, they are quiet.
You tagline makes me uncomfortable. The Mods have been alerted.
Aesop knew that crows were smart.
I love that photo. Where'd you get it?
Talking animals in general are creepy. I read a story once about a talking cat and it was like the malamute, it would actually ask for things. Creepy. I don't really want to hear what's on my pets minds. Judging from how the one acts, I think she would just tell me what an idiot she thinks I am.
ping
Damn, I was all confused. I thought maybe it was something religious, or another area I know very little about. Now I get it. (DUH!)
Not too sharp for a kid whose best friends family owned a foundry!
Someone else thought it was pretty funny, too.
That's nothing.
There was a crow in my hometown who would steal Mrs. Murphy's pies by dressing up as a traveling vacuam cleaner salesman. When he would dump out the ashes on the carpet and ask her to go get her vacuam to try it first, he'd grab the pies and vamoose.
She never did figure it out.
I'm not surprised you would be confused. I did a double-take when I saw that photo.
It sounds so mysterious, doesn't it?
My son knew the difference between pliers and a wrench at age two, and could distinguish between a Philips head and regular screwdriver - distinctions that most intellectuals and many scientists can't make - yet no one is writin' articles about him in Nature!
lol. My oldest daughter used to go to home depot with me all the time. She could tell you the difference between OSB, plywood & MDF. She knew tools & heavy equipment names & uses better than most men I know. She knew how to run a bobcat skid steer loader when she was 8. She was as good with a router as anyone else I know besides me (of course)
A strange thing happened, though. She turned 14 last year and now I am only an ATM for her, and I am way too weird to be seen with around town, or god forbid the lumber yard.
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